Autumn Fest
by Radkoko
Summary: A bunch of short fun drabbles for an autumn fest over on the KakaIru livejournal. Starting with a genin round of Autumn leaves, nindo, and Mission: Babysitting.
1. Nindo: The ninja way

Iruka stood in front of his class, back to his students as he wrote a single word on the board.

"What's Nindo?" A child's voice instantly asked.

"Well, it's what we're going to learn about today." Iruka said as he walked to the other side of his desk. It was usually a more important conversation when he did so. "Although ninpo is a very long and important part of our lives, in essence it is simply 'The Ninja Way'. All of our own personal philosophies in how we live our lives and do our job as ninja. There is one story that I think is important to share. There was once a great ninja from Konoha, The White Fang. A truly amazing ninja, and even more so an amazing man. He chose once to give up a mission to save his comrades, and although it seems heroic, many told him he was wrong for doing such a thing, that the mission is more important that anything. I think that they are wrong." Iruka paused for a moment as he glanced outside, quickly pulling them back to show the students his seriousness.

"Although it is many's Nindo that the mission is more important, I think that Konoha stands above them all. We work with each other, and take care of each other so that we can all come home at the end of the day. You are the only one that can decide your personal Nindo, but don't forget that the ninja that work beside you are more than comrades, and more than friends, here we're family." Iruka finished his speech, a new one that he'd yet to give a group of students before, but one that he'd found to be more than true. He let his students talk amongst themselves as his eyes drifted towards the tree outside, smiling lightly at the silver haired ninja sitting out on the strongest branch, listening to every word he spoke.

* * *

#1

Word Count: 328/500

Prompt: Nindo: The Ninja Way


	2. Autumn Leaves

It was getting late in the year, a time many dreaded within the year. Only days away from the anniversary of the Nine Tails attack, but more importantly to Iruka, whom tried to focus on the positives, Naruto's birthday. The boy needed someone to be there for him on a day that others only seemed to hate him more. Iruka glanced up at the trees around him, finding the leaves turning colors quite drastically. No longer were they a single brilliant shade of green, but instead tens of colors, ranging through yellow, to orange, red, and even brown. They were a beautiful mosaic of color as a leaf slowly dropped from it's branch, floating on down in front of the teacher's face.

He'd never found the autumn to be a good time for him, but there was little to do about it, but to smile and continue on his way. Yet here Iruka was still staring at the leaves, reminding him of life. It was almost as if taking each color to define a good or bad memory, sad or happy, and just putting them all together. They just worked together, even if it was mostly a bad orange, or a happy brown, when weaved together through the tree and the sunlight, it all looked wonderful together. Even with bad moments, a life could pull together and become beautiful. He continued watching as the leaves fell past him, imagining a memory that they held in his life. A large orange one floated past, as a picture of losing his parents filled his mind, a bright red fell just near it as he imagined Naruto as a child, a sad memory of the time, but later turned into it's own something special. School memories flooded past him as he remembered being the class clown, his endless talks with The Third, and then two that almost seemed attached worked their way down. He saw red and brown intertwined together as he thought about the night Mizuki betrayed the village, the sadness he felt for the man that became such a mess, yet the proud feeling that filled him as Naruto held up his own, and the feelings that came as the boy protected him in return. Years continued to fly past as the wind blew around him until one las brown leaf dropped into his hand. One last good memory.

Iruka held it to the sun as he studied the leaf, knowing exactly what memory it held. As he lowered the leaf he noticed Kakashi walking through the mounds of leaves straight toward him, although the memory held a lot for him Iruka gladly let it go as he met Kakashi, kissing the man deeply. Letting the last leaf fall, Iruka chose to live his life, not the memories.

* * *

#2

Word Count: 468/500

Prompt: Autumn Leaves


	3. Mission: Babysitting

"How the hell did I get put on this mission…" a teenaged Kakashi asked himself. He had two kids crawling all over him, and a third crying their eyes out. "Shouldn't a set of toddlers be easier to handle than this?" Sure the kids were old enough to start talking, but it didn't stop Kakashi from talking to himself out loud.

"No!" A small blond boy replied.

"No?" Kakashi questioned, "So you're on good behavior tonight?"

Instead of a response this time he received a nod, from the tiny Naruto.

Kakashi sighed as he thought back to get a clear picture of how he was put in charge of a few small children.

_The third Hokage stood in front of a team of young chunin and jounin, each of them prepared to receive the special mission that the Hokage had picked out for them specially._

_The old hand cleared his throat as he went down the row handing a scroll to each ninja, "This mission is of the utmost importance, and is not to be taken lightly. Each of you will be given three subjects to watch, and you will be presiding over them for six hours. Your pay will be more than one might normally get for this mission, only for the fact that you will be receiving no outside help. I will expect all of you on your best behai-"_

_"What special mission, this is just babysitting!" Asuma spoke up, having already cracked open the scroll to read the details. He often got tired of his father's ramblings, jumping ahead of the speech and getting to the details._

_A few other voices began to protest the 'mission', but The Third quickly continued._

_"It's not as prestigious as I would make it sound, but there is an important meeting and party for the town happening this weekend. Children are not welcome to the meeting, and you all are too young to attend the party, I need reliable and capable ninja to watch some of the more troublesome children, especially those discovering their family ninjutsu too early. And of course the children that are just too difficult to leave with an unarmed citizen." There were grumbles of protest, but the overall consensus was to believe the old man, knowing that an unattended ninja child could easily destroy a building or two, especially those that were just discovering any chakra that they held._

Kakashi needed help, he wasn't good with kids, never was, never would be. As his mind called for help, one of the younger chunin's walked through the door. The boy had a brown ponytail and a scar across his nose, Iruka, if Kakashi remembered correctly.

"All of my kids were picked up, so I came to see if you needed some help?" He asked politely.

"I would love some," Kakashi replied relieved as he attempted to move, having been stuck in Shikamaru's shadow for the last fifteen minutes.

* * *

#3

Word Count: 498/500 (cutting it close)

Prompt: Mission: Babysitting


	4. Neighbors

The two had been neighbors forever. The silver haired man in the wooden house that shared it's walls with the salmon pink coated house, owned by the reserved ponytailed teacher. The two hardly seemed cordial, maybe greeting each other in the mornings as they passed each other for work, but nothing else. The two lived very different lives, but somehow they had ended up next to each other in the town house styled homes that shared an entire side of their house. That's of course how the two seemed to the outside world. Little did others know that on the inside, walls had been knocked down, and the two seemingly separate houses actually functioned as one. The two men weren't quite sure why they still kept up the pretense to the two separate homes, but it hadn't been that way in quite a long time. A wall came down on accident early in their home owning days, and after a huge fight between the two, something else clicked and they found themselves inseparable, ready to continue making the houses one.

* * *

Chunin #2

Word Count: 180/500

Prompt: Image of houses side by side, column 1 row 3. Can be seen at kakairu-fest livejournal.


	5. Nightmares

Everyone had their fears, simple phobias of animals around them, or other everyday things. It was how those fears played their roles in each persons life that determined their power. Kakashi was ruled by his fears. It wasn't something he needed everyone in the village to know so he kept it to himself. It was his personal fears, and they were nobody else's business. There was only one living person who he'd talk to about such things, and it was only because they were the cause of his fears. Many nights Kakashi would wake up from a nightmare that held his fear, and it wasn't until he proved his nightmare wrong that he was able to sleep again.

Once again Kakashi jolted straight up in bed from his reoccurring nightmare, as his hand shifted through the bed to find the body that he needed to know was still beside him. Tonight he wasn't finding what he needed. Kakashi leaped from the bed as he started searching the room, he ran out of the bedroom seeing nothing through the dark hallway. When he reached the living room he heard a noise near the door as he snuck around the corner, sighing in frustration as he saw what he needed.

There shuffling through the fridge stood the silhouetted figure of Iruka. "Please don't do that to me." Kakashi said as he grabbed the body tightly.

"I just wanted something to drink," Iruka said as he smoothed the wild hair with his empty hand. "We've got to fix this."

Kakashi nodded into the crook of Iruka's neck, as he tried to calm himself down. "I know it's a useless fear, I'm just not ready to loose another important person."

"I can't blame you," Iruka said as he lifted Kakashi's head from his shoulder. He kissed the man lightly on the lips, "Lets go back to sleep, and I'll be there all night long. Promise."

They went back to bed, Kakashi's fear quelled for the moment, but never fully gone.

* * *

Chunin #2

Word Count: 336/500

Prompt: Fear


	6. Gift

Kakashi rarely, if ever had given gifts to anyone, especially from a mission, but there was something that drew him to this. It was a gorgeous ink drawing of some bird and foliage, nothing special, but it stuck him. Maybe it was because he knew exactly who it'd go to, he knew exactly where it'd be put up on the wall, and it was almost as if his mind couldn't give up on this thought. Kakashi knew the mission was over anyway, there was nothing stopping him, so he went ahead and purchased the piece of art.

When he got home, Kakashi presented the piece to Iruka. "It made me think of you," He stated simply as he handed off the small roll of paper. Iruka looked at it oddly before he went ahead and unrolled the piece. He stared at it for a few moments, as Kakashi waited in silence, wondering if he'd been wrong the whole time.

"It's beautiful," Iruka said simply, as he slowly walked away from Kakashi.

Kakashi was a little confused as he went ahead and followed Iruka into the living room. Iruka went towards the wall and just placed it where it was meant to go. It was the same exact spot that Kakashi had pictured in his head when he'd purchased the piece. "Sorry," Iruka apologized for walking away, "There was something that was just calling me to put it right there."

Kakashi smirked lightly, "Don't worry about it, that was exactly where I thought it would end up when I bought it. The fact that I knew where it was going was what convinced me to get it."

The two laughed together as they turned to look at the piece once again. They were mesmerized by the simplicity of the grey-scale image. The texture was unique and the image held it's own power. It was just what the wall needed.

* * *

#3 Chunin

Word Count: 319

Prompt: Image of a ink drawing of a crane, kakairu-fest on livejournal.


	7. To be Loved

Kakashi looked up at the scared Chunin standing in front of him, the large brown eyes conveying countless emotions. Iruka took a deep breath, pretending to not be affected by the fear he now felt because of the other man. He turned quickly as he headed out of the room, only to be stopped by the strong hand on his wrist.

"Iruka." Kakashi called hoping to be looked in the face by his lover, though to no avail, "Please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" The silver haired man stopped, knowing his words were no longer of use. He let go of the tanned wrist, letting the man proceed on his escape route.

Once Iruka was gone Kakashi buried his head in his hands, "Shit!" He cursed loudly to himself, "I really fucked up this time."

As he fell backwards onto the bed he couldn't help but think aloud, "Whoever said it was better to be feared than loved, knows nothing of relationships."

* * *

Jounin #1

Word Count: 178/500

Prompt: It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both

_Machiavelli_


	8. What Cannot be Seen

Kakashi walked into his home, just recently he'd finished a mission, and been released from the hospital that had quickly followed. He entered his shared apartment, looking over to the kitchen where he expected his lover to be. There cooking his favorite meal stood the ponytailed chunin that he'd chosen to share his life with, and nothing made him happier.

Iruka turned off the stove, readying the meal for the two of them to share as soon as he head the door open. He turned around and was shocked to see Kakashi's new appearance. "What happened?" Iruka asked as he held a hand up to Kakashi's sharingan eye, that was bandaged up instead of the usual headband covering.

"The usual, chakra exhaustion. Except they don't trust me this time, forced these bandages over my eye with a seal that I can't remove." Kakashi said as if nothing new happened. "So you going to help me out of it?" He questioned Iruka as he turned his head to show the seal. He had of course already tried a number of seals that he knew, but without being able to see the seal that sat on the back side of his head, he'd just been guessing.

"No." Iruka said simply as he served their dinners.

Through the rest of the night Kakashi pleaded to be let out of his bindings, as Iruka constantly replied with frustrated no's.

It wasn't until they went to bed that Kakashi finally understood why Iruka would deny him such a thing.

"You know, you've never just used your own senses. You rely heavily on the sharingan, what can you tell with neither eye?" Iruka asked as he quietly blindfolded Kakashi.

"I'm a ninja, I perceive with all my senses, how is this any different?" He asked annoyed.

"Fine, tell me one thing you notice that you never have with your eyes."

Kakashi sat for a second listening and waiting. He grabbed for Iruka's hand as he sat calmly for longer.

"Your skin is softer than it should be," He said chuckling slightly, as Iruka pulled away his hand. "And your heartbeat rose when I took your hand."

He listened to the breaths of Iruka, as his hand worked it's way up to Iruka's face. "You're blushing," He mocked as he closed the distance between them.

"And one more thing, I guess it has nothing to do with this exercise, but I love you."

* * *

Jounin #2

Word Count: 406/500

Prompt: Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye

_Miyamoto Musashi_


	9. The Mind

Kakashi walked into the mission room, heading straight to his usual spot. He did pretty much anything to see Iruka, even if it meant offering to finish the mission reports for each and ever mission. He politely handed over the paper to the tanned chunin, as they shared their usual smile. As Iruka was checking it over Kakashi couldn't help but to desperately take the chunin away from his desk duties. Plots formed in his head of where they could disappear to, without anyone noticing their disappearance.

He was ready to grab Iruka right then when he heard those dismissing words, "Thanks for all your hard work, Hatake-san." Iruka never pulled his last name out, even in public places. Kakashi feared looking down, but knew he needed to, as he saw the anger, just below the surface. The fire in Iruka's eyes told Kakashi that the chunin knew his thoughts. The older man politely bowed and quickly disappeared from the room.

He found a nice tree, just far enough away from the main part of the village as he thought to himself, 'My mind, and Iruka are turning against me.'

* * *

Jounin #3

Word Count: 191/500

Prompt: It is not enemy or foe, but a man's own mind that lures him to evil ways

_Buddha_


	10. Weakness

Iruka sat on the couch, relaxing after the afternoon lessons at the academy, when Kakashi entered their home. He called his greeting to the man, but got no reply. Looking around he noticed the man about to pounce onto the couch. "What's up?" Iruka asked trying to disarm the older man's attack.

"Nothing much, just missed you after the long day," Kakashi replied as he sat down on the couch next to Iruka, who immediately jumped up.

Iruka nervously walked away, feeling like he was prey being stalked, and his mind wasn't far off the truth. He was quickly cornered against the wall as Kakashi kissed him deeply. Loosing breath Iruka tried to push Kakashi away only to get his hands pinned against the wall next to him. Slowly Kakashi pulled away, as he hungrily licked his lips. Iruka suddenly started crying as he pulled at his wrists. "Kakashi, you're hurting me," He whined, to which Kakashi pulled back immediately, letting the man have his hands back. While continuing to nurse his injured wrists, Iruka walked away, and gave up his charade. Smirking he stopped his fake tears, and stuck his tongue out at Kakashi, who was still trying to process what had happened. Once his mind put the pieces together Iruka grew wide eyed as he decided to run away, with Kakashi bounding after him, stalking his prey once again.

* * *

Jounin #4

Word Count: 231/500

Prompt: When the enemy attacks, remain undisturbed but feign weakness

_Book of Five Rings, Fire Book, The Second: Tai no Sen_


	11. Hot Coffee

It all happened at once. His eye was caught by the cute brown haired boy at the table in front of him, he tripped on his own foot, and managed to dump the coffee on his tray in the boy's lap. Why was life against him today?

The brunette cried out in pain as he grabbed a napkin to dry up the majority of the spilled liquid. "I'm so sorry." Kakashi said wide-eyed as his hands fidgeted in midair. He wasn't sure what he should even do, if he helped the boy clean up, it could be considered sexual harassment, but if he didn't he just looked like an ass. He already looked like an idiot, so he wasn't ready to add anything else to that list.

"It's ok, I know it wasn't on purpose," The boy said as he looked up at Kakashi. Kakashi was stunned, there was more to the boy than he imagined, the deep brown eyes that looked back into his were perfect, something he never knew was possible in someone's eyes. Immediately Kakashi ran away, ducking low as he hid behind the counter. The husband and wife pair that owned the coffee shop glanced at each other smiling, before they attended to the boy huddled on the ground. In an instant Kakashi was up and headed back towards the table. In one hand he held two towels to help the boy, and a coupon to give as compensation. Kakashi looked back confused at how they had gotten there, but he was just shooed onward by the red haired owner.

He gulped before taking the last few steps back to the table. "I'm really sorry," He said again as he handed a wet towel towards the boy, holding the dry one out for his convenience.

The boy took the towel as he cleaned himself up best as possible, "It's really fine, I'm sure it happens all the time." He laughed as Kakashi pretended to join in, not willing to tell the boy that he'd never dropped a tray before.

"Ohh," Kakashi remembered the coupon in his other hand as he held it out to the boy, "This is an apology from the staff here, and we hope this experience won't steer you away from coming again."

The boy gave a bit of a cockeyed smile, "Well you haven't chased me away yet. What's your name?"

Kakashi felt out of breath almost unable to answer the simplest question in the world, "It's..Kakashi."

The boy smiled, "Mine's Iruka." He and his friends got of from their seat, as they headed towards the door. Iruka pausing to turn back towards Kakashi, "Hope to see you next time, although I might prefer it if the coffee stays in the cup." He teased slightly before waving and heading out the door.

* * *

Chidori #1

Word Count: 472/500

Prompt: Kakashi had never seen such soulful brown eyes until he dumped coffee into the lap of their owner.


	12. Here Again

Iruka was lying in the hospital bed after the ridiculous day he'd experienced, just ready to go home and relax. Instead he was stuck where he was, and it didn't help that his neighbor seemed to be very popular with the nurses. There must have been about 5 nurses surrounding his neighbor, but with the curtain pulled he could only hear the women and the male voice of the patient beside him. Iruka sighed assuming his best choice was to just fall asleep, though he found the higher pitched voices keeping him awake. He felt ready to yell at them about not letting their patients rest properly when he overheard the voice of the other patient.

"I think it's time you let me rest," the voice said calmly, followed by some whines of disappointment, "I'll still be here tomorrow, but I can sense my roommate wants some quite as well." The nurses slowly slid the curtain open to see Iruka forcing a smile towards them. They all quickly apologized to the teacher for their rudeness and hastily left.

"Sorry about that," the now revealed Kakashi said to Iruka.

"Don't worry about it, we all know you're popular with women." Iruka said as he decided to turn away from the other man in hopes of finally getting some sleep.

"What are you here for sensei?" Kakashi asked curiously, not letting the man have the quite he dismissed the nurses for,

"Just a stupid set of circumstances…now if you don't mind." He said trying to settle in, but to no avail.

"Ohh really, I'd love a bedtime story."

"Then what are you here for!" Iruka asked fed up, as he sat back up in the bed.

"Chakra exhaustion, that can't be all that surprising. And it doesn't make a good story, so why don't you tell me yours."

Iruka grumbled to himself, but had known the other man well enough to know he wouldn't give up, so Iruka gave in. "I was teaching the children about some weapons today in class, and as usual they don't have great aim. Except for one kid that has worse aim than Naruto did, if that is even seems possible." Iruka glanced over at his roommate, noticing the smile in his eyes knowing well enough about Naruto's aim for himself. "Well I wasn't paying attention, and I guess it serves me right to get a cut in my side for it. Of course I'd just be home resting except that one of my old students was the one patching me up, and I guess he's new enough that he didn't want to risk letting me go home until someone else looked at the sealed wound in the morning."

"Well we wouldn't want Konoha's favorite teacher to be out of commission." Kakashi said as he smiled, and almost immediately relaxed into sleep.

Iruka just stared amazed, before resettling himself for sleep that never came.

* * *

Chidori #2

Word Count: 488/500

Prompt: Kakashi is back in hospital. He's used to it and knows all the nurses, but his roommate Iruka isn't so comfortable.


	13. Swimming

Kakashi had decided on an elaborate scheme to get Iruka on a picnic lunch. Sure they were always at each others places, and ate dinner together regularly, but this was something different, it was a nice relaxing afternoon for a picnic. There was just one thing that bothered Iruka. They were right there on the edge of the river, the largest and most prominent river in all of Konoha, and there was something that Iruka wasn't quite ready to reveal to Kakashi.

After they enjoyed their lunch Iruka found himself aching to leave, "That was a really great lunch Kakashi, thank you. Would…would you like to join me back at my place?" Iruka heard himself falter, but hoped it wouldn't be noticed by his partner.

"I was thinking we could swim in the river for a bit, it'll be nice and refreshing for our day off?" Kakashi offered as he was already stripping down to his boxers.

Iruka hesitantly glanced at the river, "I'm not really feeling up for that at the moment, but you enjoy."

Kakashi pouted slightly, but went ahead and dove in, as Iruka sat near their stuff a few feet away from the bank. "Will you at least put your feet in? It feels great." Iruka sighed, but conceded having no real excuse not to. Kakashi was almost like a fish, swimming constantly back and forth, diving and surfacing easily, coming up for water right in front of Iruka.

The silver haired Jounin tread on the water as he leaned up towards Iruka for a kiss, who looked at him before giving into the man's selfish request. Suddenly Iruka felt his arm grabbed tightly as he was yanked towards the water. "NO! Kakashi st-" was all Iruka got out before he went face first into the water. He swallowed a mouthful of water, before desperately clinging to Kakashi, and pulling himself back above the surface.

"I…can't- Kakashi!" Iruka tried to tell the other man, as he coughed out the water from his lungs.

"You can't what?" Kakashi asked confused.

Iruka coughed again trying to regain his breath, finally able to gulp down some air, "I can't swim," he said feeling very embarrassed.

Kakashi just looked down at his brown-haired lover confused. "Why not?"

"I was learning from my parents when I was younger, right before the nine-tails attack. After they died, nobody really cared. And it's definitely too embarrassing to admit as an adult." Iruka explained as he slowly hid his face in Kakashi's chest.

Kakashi looked around and smiled softly, "Why don't I teach you then?"

* * *

Chidori #3

Word Count: 435/500

Prompt: Kakashi takes Iruka to the river for an afternoon of carefree swimming. But Iruka has no idea how to swim.

AN: So this is the last round and fic for the Autumn drabble fest over on the kakairu_fest livejournal. Hope you've enjoyed.


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